Somatic Generosity: Cultivating empathy in the classroom and beyond

As an educator, I often observe students struggling with new concepts and issues of heritageand identity. The process of understanding the somatic heritage we carry, socially andculturally, through embodied practices, offers students alternative pathways to knowledge -embodied knowledge, traditional knowledge, relational knowledge. In presenting anexperiential learning model, students can experience in a direct way their growing awarenessand knowledge.The intention of Somatic Generosity is to create an opening for explorations of vulnerability,empathetic listening and subjective awareness. These are the skills needed to understand howto be generous and how effective generosity as a place of operation can be in settings withinand outside of the academy.Why generosity? What does generosity have to offer in a pedagogical setting? From myexperiences teaching over the past 20 years, I’ve discovered that students want to learn howto speak about their work with embodied confidence. They want to connect with their fellowstudents and colleagues. They wish to be recognized as contributors to the environments theywork, learn and live in. And in return they opened themselves up to doing the same for others.Empathy. With empathy comes generosity. Giving without needing something back in return.Empathy, generosity, listening, and practical skills like comfort in public speaking andconfidence in one’s own work, and how to relate in all of these settings creates growthopportunities both within a student’s career and life.How do we learn how to be generous or to empathize with others? If this is not modeled to usor we do not have access to these kinds of experiences in our lives, then how do we learnthem? Is the traditional classroom a place we can use to teach students these skills? Do othereducators and institutions agree that these kinds of life skills are important?Somatic Generosity is a transferable and sustainable practice in social spaces beyond theclassroom. Students walk away having learned how to navigate social and culturalenvironments they may not be inherently a part of; an experiential life lesson.Somatic Generosity is a series of educational platforms, techniques and exercises. Some arephysical that connect students to their bodies others are cognitive that tap into opinions wehave about people we encounter in all of the environments of our lives. These platforms assiststudents in developing their self-awareness about their opinions, often developed through acultural or social identity/heritage that they may have about another person. What would it doto have students talking and listening to each other, creating a community in the classroom?How would it feel if the people you worked with and taught c ared about the other people in theroom?How do we become more aware of when we are being generous? The ? rst tool I teach is whatthe affect of being generous feels like in our body via an exercise of creating ‘ communityagreements ’ . Community agreements allow for everyone ’ s voice in the room to be heard. Beingheard and seen is often the ? rst step to feeling more secure and more able to share in agenuine way. We practice generosity by knowing ourselves, and learning to care for others.When we feel seen and heard we are more generous with everything. This creates a positivefeedback within our classroom.’ Agreements ’ is a term used in activism to describe how participants in a particular space willoperate. A consistent agreement was: what happens in this space stays in this space. With thisagreement in place students felt safer and more comfortable sharing things about theirpersonal lives that they would not normally reveal. As they listened to each other they began tounderstand that a judgement or criticism of another student they may have had based onappearances, was not true. That they all shared a lot more than they thought they did. They feltmore compassion for their fellow students due to this shift in perspective.A more physical technique involved students partnering up and each taking a turn rocking thelimbs and torso of the other student. I would give the prompt to touch and rock this body as ifit were your body. Students who were not familiar with being touched outside of intimate orfamilial relationships were a little uncomfortable at first, but really got into it after a fewmoments. They recognized that the way they touched this person would most likely be the waythey would be touched as well. So they became very aware and careful with their touch. Thisexercise produced an immediate closeness between students and broke down another layer ofcritique and judgement.In the 2 years of implementing this work while teaching at UC Davis, I received feedback thatstudents felt seen, heard and secure enough to be more vulnerable. This is one of manyaspects that was revealed through the surveys and within office hours and emails sent after thesemester had ended.In the Indigenous communities I have worked within, we practice giving without receiving. Thisis an inherent part of our culture. In a consumer based culture, giving is only done inrelationship to receiving. One gives with the intention of getting something back. This is amaterial exchange. In the Indigenous, US and Canadian based communities I have been a partof, you give because that is what you do, you share what you have materially; within your heart;your internal and external resources, your knowledge.It is from this practice that I developed the format and techniques of Somatic Generosity.Creating a model of self-awareness, vulnerability and empathy, by engaging the body’s feltsense of generosity.Somatic Generosity is a socially innovative platform that has broad reaching social, politicaland educational impact. These platforms have expanded my students’ and colleagues’self-awareness of what knowledge is and how to apply their knowledge from a sustainableplace of abundance.